Republican People's Party

The Republican People's Party, known as the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP) in Turkish, is a social democratic political party in Turkey, founded on 9 September 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The party became the major political organization of Ataturk's one-party state, advocating secularism, free education, and democracy. It was a paternal autocratic party under Ataturk, as Ataturk was considered the "Father of the Turks" and given near-absoulte power over a one-party state; Ataturk handpicked his successor Ismet Inonu. However, the party has moved to the left since the end of World War II, during which both Nazi Germany and the Allied Powers attempted to court the government's help. The six arrows of the party's flag represent republicanism, nationalism, statism, populism, laicite, and revolution.